Sardar Muhammad Yousaf said this during a meeting with the visiting delegation of Iranian Tourism Entrepreneurs from Khorasan Razavi province in Islamabad.

The delegation was led by Hamid Mousavi caretaker of directorate of pilgrims and tourism of Khorasan Razavi.

Sardar Muhammad Yousaf, expressing his views, said ties between Iran and Pakistan would further strengthen with the promotion of exchange of delegations between the two countries.

He advised that private tour operators recommended by the Pakistani government should be involved in arranging the tour for Pakistani pilgrims to Iran. He added that both countries can sign an MoU in this regards.

He noted that every month 4,000, to 5,000 Pakistani pilgrims travel to Iran and in the month of Muharram and Safar this figure crosses 60,000.

He called for promotion of people-to-people contact between Iran and Pakistan.

Hamid Mousavi during the meeting said that basic objective of his delegation to visit Pakistan is to promote people-to-people contact between Iran and Pakistan. The Iranian official expressing his views said that Iran and Pakistan enjoy strong brotherly ties and the two countries also support each other on various issues at international forums.

He pointed out that enemies of Muslim world are hatching conspiracies to divide Ummah. He stressed the need for forging unity among Muslim world to encounter conspiracies against Islam.

Mousavi said that huge potential of cooperation exists between Iran-Pakistan tourism sector which is yet to be explored. He noted that Iran is considered to be one the major tourist destinations of the world but only 250,000 Pakistanis annually visit Iran and most of them are pilgrims.

“We want to enhance religious and commercial tourism with Pakistan,” he noted.

He added that governments of both the countries should encourage private sector to promote tourism ties between Iran and Pakistan.

He said that Iran wants to give more and more facilities to the Pakistani pilgrims. The Iranian official said Iran and Pakistan should sign MoUs to enhance their cooperation to facilitate pilgrims.

He also extended an invitation to the Pakistani minister to visit Iran.

Mohammad Mehdi Abadi representing the embassy of Iran also said that the embassy is ready to cooperate with the government of Pakistan to facilitate Pakistani pilgrims. He said that Iranian embassy has already taken many steps for the Pakistani pilgrims such as ending the requirement of medical certificate.

He also praised the efforts of the Pakistani government in making the security of the pilgrims tighter.